Blue Forest Banshee Part 21
The Talk
Duo grinned at Raia, Q's doorwarden.
"Hi, Beautiful. I am here as summoned," he declared brightly. "Am I in trouble?"
Raia smiled back at him. "Of course not! He just wants to speak to you about something. I'll let him know that you're here."
Duo pirouetted on the rug, humming softly. His nervousness was better controlled when he was moving.
"You can go in, Duo."
"Thanks!"
~*~
"I'm just not sure that I'm the one to do this..." Duo repeated slowly.
He couldn't just tell Q "No." And Mr Potter seemed a friendly sort; maybe a little shy.
It was just that the thought of getting up in front of a class of Fourth Year students as well as a group of Division Personnel and trying to explain what a Banshee was and was not made his stomach shrivel with fear.
"I understand," said Q. "But you are the only Banshee in residence. It would be a great favor to me," he coaxed gently.
"It needn't be a long talk," said Mr Potter. "Five minutes, no more than ten."
Against his better judgment, Duo said, "Okay."
~*~
He had always believed that he liked kids. After all, he was one, back in the day. And he wasn't but a few years older than these kids now. Individually, he might have liked them, but as a group they more resembled a pack of hyenas closing in on him.
He didn't expect to have to answer questions. He had psyched himself up for a five to ten minute speech about Banshees, and then a quick break out the door.
When Mr Potter opened the floor to questions, Duo's stomach clenched and his heart leaped into his throat. He hated being asked "why" questions, because he often didn't know "why".
The first couple of questions were easy, though. A girl asked whether Banshee Clans existed all over the world.
Yes, but Duo was not familiar with any.
A boy asked if his Clan had television.
No, his particular Clan preferred not to be so influenced by Humans.
Another boy asked how Duo had learned to live among Humans if he didn't know anything about them. He had watched and learned.
Then a girl had asked what male Banshees did, if the females were the only ones with the Voice. Duo began to explain that males all had defensive abilities, as well as the advantage of size and musculature, just as Human males, but a boy near the rear of the room snorted and muttered audibly to the girl next to him.
"They let the women protect them. They're only good for breeding."
Distracted, Duo lost the thread of his answer, and had to start over.
::What a rude thing to say! Little creep!::
No one else seemed to have heard the brat, so Duo tried to ignore it.
A girl asked if he liked being a Banshee.
It was a strange question and he wasn't sure how to answer.
"Well, I am a Banshee and I can't change what I am, so there wouldn't be any point in not liking it. Yes, I like who I am."
A boy this time. "So, if you like being a Banshee, why did you hide it when you lived with Humans?"
"Because I didn't want to be obviously different."
"Fairies and Dwarves don't hide," said a sly-looking girl. "They're proud of what they are."
Duo flushed. "I had no knowledge of Humans when I entered their world. I was very young, and chose to blend. There is nothing wrong with that. If I had been asked directly what I was, I would have told the truth."
More hands went up, but Mr Potter called time, perhaps noting that Duo was becoming upset. He thanked Duo for an informative talk. Duo walked slowly to the back of the room and out the door.
Once in the hallway, he exhaled a great sigh of relief, standing very still for a moment. He really didn't like public speaking. He headed then for the stairs, anxious to get back to his desk and the more congenial company of Wufei, Trowa and Heero.
Just as the bell rang, signaling the end of class, he noticed his bootlace was untied. He stepped into an empty classroom to be out of the way of the students.
"--Course not!" he heard a young voice say. "You saw how he was dressed! Pretending to be Human. They're just breeding stock anyway. Like the bulls on my uncle's ranch."
"I heard they couldn't be trusted in a fight, that they run away. That's why their women have to protect them."
Several other voices echoed those statements, and other, similar sentiments.
Cowards, breeders, liars; unreliable, untrustworthy, unmotivated... The words hammered at him. From children... Who told them those things...? Who would think so badly of Banshees? Who would even care?
::We stay away from others. We don't make trouble. Why would anyone hate us just for being what we are?::
But answers to that were not forthcoming, and Duo stayed very still and out of sight in the darkened classroom until all the students had passed.
Instead of going to the office, he slipped back to his room. He spent some long minutes staring at his reflection in the mirror.
TBC...
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